Pliny Fisk III

Pliny was such an inspiration in my early career as a budding sustainable architect, back when that was a barely nascent field. He shared generously and unassumingly, combining the visionary with the down-to-earth in one kind, fun, energetic colleague and friend. It was always great to connect with him at NESEA's yearly conferences, and later I was lucky enough to visit with him at Max's Pot. Needless to say, his legacy lives on in so many ways - but he is deeply, sorely missed.

He told me his wild (but true) stories about working with “that crazy German” at UT, about how he wasn’t allowed into the Pentagon—which is why Gail had to oversee the renovation there—and about solar-powered water heaters that he provided to people in need, much to the displeasure of government agencies.
A courageous man with integrity (which is becoming increasingly important these days) and a great role model from whom I learned a lot during my internship a quarter-century ago.
In everything we did, he always encouraged us to "have fun" (something we Germans don't always find so easy...), and I still try to take that to heart every day.

All the things I learned from Pliny in no particular order – of course!
1. Love is a scalable feast. Everyone has something to bring to the table. Bring it on!.
2. Just because he can’t explain it in a language you understand, doesn’t mean he doesn’t know what he is talking about. Listen in-between his words.
3. There is a difference between the learning that opens up your heart and the learning that shuts you down. Know the difference. Be strong.
4. The past is useful as fertilizer: good for growing new thingies, bad for face-planting
5. You might fail but the more territory you cover, the easier the rest will come to you.
6. Making a commotion requires strategic genius and a lot of khutzpah.
7. Just keep breathing. Smile a lot. Laugh more.
8. You need diversity to maximize ideation, shared values for efficient production.
9. People have different learning styles. If they don’t get it by reading and writing, go outside and walk it through. They are likely creatives. Or children.
10 I learned what it looks like when you find a soul mate when I met Pliny’s Gail: the capacity gets twice as big, twice as strong, twice as beautiful. Thank you for sharing.
Love, Jody

Plenty stands out as one of the legends of our time. It was an honor to know him, and to be enthused by him as a student and a colleague.

Dear Gail and friends,

I am saddened to hear of Pliny's passing and wish you all peace. I only just met Pliny a year ago, yet the news hit me as if I had known him for much longer. Covering the CPMBS' 50th anniversary was my first contribution to the profession since grad school, and so I feel very grateful to have met Pliny and been a part of his story in some small way. I have no doubt that his work and his spirit will continue to live on for many years to come.

With love,
Cameron Klepac

Pliny was one of a kind—a systems thinker, builder, and generous provocateur who spent his life testing new ways for humanity to live in harmony with planet Earth. He combined deep insight with hands-on making, and he invited others into the work with infectious energy.

I had the privilege of showing Pliny some of my inventions, he saw the potential at once and responded with the same open, forward-looking spirit that marked so much of his life’s work.

Pliny was a great man. The future is far richer because he was here. His example continues and he lives on in our work.

I first met Pliny in 1974 when we had offices in the School of Architecture Annex (an old church.) He already had the enthusiasm and vision to create Max's Pot.
A great life.
~Bob

It’s been almost 10 years since I spent a summer working with and learning so many wonderful things from Pliny and Gail at the CMPBS during my first and only internship.
Pure SERENDIPITY...
I don’t have enough words in my vocabulary to express my gratitude to them for helping me awaken as a person and giving such a huge boost to my career as a designer.
My deepest condolences to Gail, and my endless gratitude to Pliny.
I’ll never forget the message on his T-shirt the day he came to the Austin airport to pick me up:
“Stop Bitching. Start a Revolution”

I am very sorry to hear about Pliny's passing. It was fortunate to be part of the CMPBS community and have opportunity to work with Pliny. My time at the CMPBS was my first internship in the United States, and his encouragement gave me confidence to find my place in the professional community.

I will always remember Pliny's passion for sustainability and his enthusiasm for his work. The guidance and encouragement he generously gave me throughout that year have warm my heart. I learned a great deal from him, and his support made a lasting difference in my life.

I am sending my love to Gail, Pliny's family, and the entire CMPBS community. Pliny warmth, passion, and dedication will always hold a special place in my memories.

Sincerely,
Meng-Shin Lin

Back at the office, I learned of Pliny’s passing while reading emails I received during my vacation.
My thoughts go to all of you, especially Gail, Ariel, and Carson. I have always felt a special connection to Texas, to Austin, and most particularly to Max Pot, since I spent that incredible year of 1999-2000 with y’all !
Meeting Pliny was one of the most significant and formative experiences of my life. I retain vivid memories of those twelve months at the Center : his humanism, his immense scientific knowledge and insatiable curiosity, his contagious enthousiasm for innovation and for constantly seeking a new world to invent. They were marked by powerful concepts and profound reflections, each more inspiring than the previous one.

So many “serious commotions” that continue to guide me today in my daily practice as an architect in France :

“What I know comes from what I thought I knew, that grew up into what I did not even know … I wanted to know.”

Thank you, Pliny, for all that.

My connections to Pliny are primarily indirect - through my years of working with Gail on the Green Guide for Health Care, LEED for Healthcare, and related projects to raise up health to be a major pillar of sustainability. Gail was one of the best, strongest collaborators I ever worked with. Throughout our work I could see this expansive energy and creative far sighted vision she brought to our efforts that was clearly rooted in Pliny's visions and the whole Max Pot creative cauldron that Pliny and Gail nurtured over the decades. Virtuous work that has transformed how the world faced the challenges that our thoughtless technologies have created.
I'm honoring Pliny (and Gail) this week by reading essays from that lovely Max Pot 50 book

Gail and family, I was so sorry to hear of Pliny’s passing. I feel fortunate to have known him and to have played a small part in the important work the two of you built together. I’m especially grateful that I had the chance to see Pliny in June, a memory that means even more to me now. Thinking of you with great affection, and remembering Pliny with admiration and gratitude.

The world will never be the same without Pliny in it --- yet he left it so much better than he found it. I hear Pliny's voice in my head these days, saying, "Robyn. You would not believe this place. It's incredible." Wherever he is, they're so lucky to have him. No one could make me laugh as hard or think as hard as Pliny. I had no idea on the day that I showed up to write about the Center that Pliny and Gail would take me under their wing and become my lifelong friends. I feel so blessed and so fortunate that I got be a small part of the commotion. What a force he was and always will be. I miss him dearly.

Dear Gail and Family,
I'm sad to learn of Pliny's passing.
Thank you for letting me be a part of Max Pot in the summer of 1993.
It was a glorious time.
Forever grateful,
Arthur

Gail & Family,
We are so sorry to hear of Pliny's passing. It was a pleasure getting to know him over these last few years at sustainability events around Austin. I once heard someone describe Gail & Pliny as "celebrities- the Barbie & Ken of sustainability"- and that was fantastically accurate! Pliny's passion for his work was contagious; I especially enjoyed visiting CMPBS, seeing and hearing about your groundbreaking work over the years. What an incredible legacy. Sending love from the Epic team.

Oh I am so sorry to hear Pliny has left his earthly incarnation on this planet. He ideas of hope and creative ways to live sustainably on Earth influenced myself and my family. Sending love and light to Gail, his children and grandchildren ( so glad he got to be a Grandpa), Love, Electricsister

Dear Ones,

Pliny captured my respect, admiration and delight on the first day I met him at an Earth Day event. But beyond the panels and events we crossed paths at, what moved me most was how he engaged with me and my youngest son Ryan on the occaisions that we visited MaxPot. Pliny delighted in sharing the discoveries and natural innovations that emerged at the Center, and in telling stories of transformative mischief. I suspect that the only thing he loved more than discovery and causing a ruckus was to inspire others to engage in that kind of trouble. The last time we visited, Ryan brought his engineering-minded best friends, all of whom were in awe. A life well lived is one that connects to something worth sharing. Pliny embodied that. And I will also say that the way Pliny talked about his family was with a reverence, like y'all were all co-conspirators in some great clandestine adventure. What an amazing human he was. Thank you for every opportunity.

Janis

Gail and family,

I will be forever grateful that Jana and Jim gave us an occasion to meet and collaborate. I so fondly remember my first visit to the Center, wide-eyed and dazzled by Pliny's tour of his varied experiments across the grounds. I smile remembering the impromptu dance party that we started at the downtown bar in Dallas after the Hensley Field Plan was adopted, and chuckle remembering Pliny's friendly altercation with the bar tender when he reached across the bar and started eating one of his oranges (which was supposed to be reserved for garnish).

Even though our interactions were few, Pliny has had a lasting impact on me; his unwavering curiosity, his out-of-the-box visionary thinking, his unapologetic optimism, his infectious spirit of good mischief all shook up my world. 'What would Pliny think about that?' is a question I have asked myself on more than one occasion as a test to check if my thinking is big and audacious enough.

Thank you both for the mentorship and inspiration over the years. Pliny will be missed; what enormous impact he leaves behind, a testament to a life well lived. The type of life I aspire to, that he inspired in those lucky enough to meet him.

With love,
Sarah

Gail, I wish you and your family peace. My heart goes out to you with the loss of this tremendous force of nature and vision.

I was recommended to contact Pliny by Ian McHarg back in 1992. Connected to a film I was making on Ecological Design. Over the next 30+ years of encountering Pliny and Gail at the Center, the learning process multiplied and deepened in a multitude of creative directions.

Thank-you Pliny for being a gifted friend and trailblazer.
Your design imagination opened up resplendent worlds.
May your work continue to influence and shape desired eco-futures.

As Emerson once said: "People destined to meet will do so, apparently by chance,
at precisely the right moment." Pliny brought out the innovative spirit in ways that
emboldened the possibility of humans living a life dedicated to creating what matters.
Merci beaucoup for your audacity.

Pliny was mighty and strong and always up for the adventure. Ariel and Carson it seems like just yesterday we were gathered for your births with your mighty and strong Mom Gail blazing the trail for your entrance into the world. Now you all have shown what a mighty and strong family can do for each other when called. May you all be held by each other and your community now and in the months ahead. All my love, Connie

What sad news to hear of Pliny’s passing from this Good Earth. Gail and family, my heart goes out to you for this immense loss. I worked briefly with Pliny and Gail decades ago on a farm worker project in SouthTexas and I can echo all other comments about what a joy it was to work with Pliny. His inexhaustible optimism and boundless creativity always uplifted me. And he was so generous with his time and talents. Gail, you were his bedrock, his creative and intellectual equal and together you made Max’s Pot—a blueprint for what life could be—always steadfast in vision even in these dark times. My heart is with you Gail and with your family.

I am so sad to hear this and my heart goes out to Gail and the whole family. Pliny was so gracious with his time and so delightful to spend time with. I'm grateful to have known him.

I only got to know Pliny in the last year as an occasional volunteer at the Center, but even without being aware of all the important work he and Gail engaged in, one could see that he was special. The way he always gasped to see you, as if the world was there to be made fun, made me feel welcome and enjoyed, and I'll always remember dancing with him at MAXPOT's 50th. Losing Pliny is like ... losing something really special that was doing something really important-- making dreams living. Thankfully, those of us invested in the Center and the work done there by Gail and Pliny remain to hold his mission and memory. All my best.

I had the privilege of interning with Pliny during my senior year of high school in 2016. Working with him at the Center and witnessing all of the magic there was truly inspiring and launched me forward into my career as an environmental scientist and biologist. Pliny and the Center remain an important touch stone and inspiration in my life, and I am very sorry to hear of Pliny's passing. I will miss him dearly. But the power and beauty of what he built and what he stood for lives on. We will carry it forward.

I'm so sad to learn of Pliny's passing and my heart goes out to Gail and the entire family. Pliny truly was an inspiration, always creating, always thinking about what is possible, always looking ahead to what could make a better future. I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to get to learn from him, and to experience his humor, enthusiasm and unique insights. The legacy of what he and others have created will continue to shape a better world.

I was lucky enough to intern at CMPBS in 2010 and got a glimpse of the magic and creativity that Pliny shared and encouraged. I know I'm one of many who has had a career shaped by Pliny, Gail, and Ariel. I'm keeping you all in my thoughts!

Gail, Jane and I send our sincere condolences! Pliny has been a friend and inspiration throughout my career. Working with Pliny in the earliest days on forming and promoting sustainability fundamentals at its core roots was a time I cherish. I will miss talking with Pliny. It seems I learned from each of his sentences! :) I do regret not being able to realize several projects we hoped that would materialize here and abroad. We have lost a champion, a pioneer, and a proactive, results-driven renaissance man! A master of masters! With great memories, Paul and Jane Bierman-Lytle

Pliny's bio has sat upon my bookshelf since shortly after college, amongst the others that provided inspiration and hope in my young engineering career. That's what Pliny gave me: pure light and optimism in an ancient industry. I was elated when I was able to watch him speak at an event more recently, and the two stages of my career-life collided. I made plans to immediately go to the Center but never found my way there. Despite that, and despite learning about Pliny's passing, his inspiration lives on, once again reinvigorated.

Gail, this is heartbreaking news. You ve lost a fabulous husband, father and friend. Pliny’s creative work will live on. With much love. Mary

This is so hard to do. Our last meeting was full of future, talks of changing the world and making plans. You handed me a binder of work I could not have imagined coming together as fast as it did and you had everything memorized, no engrained and spoke every page verbatim. You and I had found our way back into each others lives, to work and to be friends. I will cherish every moment we had. Gail I am here and always will be.

Thank you Pliny for showing me that not all lines are straight and to have fun while making the world a better place. We have work to do.

Going to miss see and talking at the various conferences we attended. We took you around Vancouver BC some years ago at one. Had a chance to visit you at your place outside of Austin. You brilliant work will on.
Sail on, sail on…………

Dear Gail,
I am so sad to hear about Pliny's illness and death. My grandson, Travis Breihan alerted me to the news -- he loved visiting with you all and was a kindred soul when it came to all things creative and "alternative."
I can see in my mind's eye, the time Bob (Breihan) and I participated in your marriage celebration. I don't know which of the kids were there but I recall at least two! Bob admired Pliny's visionary soul so much and of course recalled with a lot of satisfaction your role in raising the consciousness of women (and some men?!) through the publication at UT.
I was a hospice chaplain for some years and have been present during the difficult and heroic decline so many with ALS face. Pliny was so fortunate to have you, your family and all your friends accompanying him on that journey.
Thinking of you and holding you all in my heart. Sarah Bentley (Breihan)

Pliny was unique. He was brilliant ( I needed an interpreter to understand his thoughts),
he was funny, he was kind. He will be missed, certainly for his contributions to a more sustainable world). I have a lump in my throat as I write this. But, right now, my thoughts are with his family-Gail, Carson, Ariel, Adam, Noah and Pliny's grandchildren.
I carry all of you in my heart.

xoxo

Marcie

We lost a brilliant soul when Pliny Fisk died on on 27 July 2026.

We are left toasting his leadership, serious commotion, and what he built, along with Gail Vittori, at the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems. The place and the family of people of that Austin lab/farm/hotbed of ideas and optimism and design ingenuity has touched the lives and careers of so many people ... and the ripple effects of Pliny's legacy will continue for a long time. (Many of these are lovingly chronicled in the new Max Pot book.)

I feel deeply grateful and lucky to have crossed paths with Pliny and Gail (and to have met their family and many of the Max Pot family, too). While I was at Metropolis Magazine, working with Susan Szenasy, we covered the Max Pot phenomenon and the wild and infectious curiosity brewing there under Pliny and Gail's stewardship. Visits were always inspiring, thought-provoking, and filled with humanity, love, and laughter.

Mary Oliver urged us to think of our "one precious life" and I love thinking about how Pliny dedicated his to the power and magic of design and systems thinking in service of humans as part of a living system -- and doing so in a way that brought in and lifted up thousands of other designers, planners, community members, and others ... the consistency of Max Pot generosity and inclusiveness and openness is amazing.

I'm thankful that Pliny was honored by Living Future this year. I am sure I was not the only one in the audience with tears during the ovation.

Before seeing him in Seattle this year, I had last seen him and Gail in Austin, along with Lucia Athens (who took these photos), Bill Corrigan, Lance Hosey, Kate Higgins Hosey in early 2020. (Pliny and Bill and Lance all died too soon ... and the commotion in the after must now be reaching a fever pitch.)

Stay connected, friends.

Sending much love to Gail and to all of Pliny's family including the grandchildren whose names I do not know (yet!) … thank you for sharing Pliny with the rest of us (the movement and the world).

Oh Gail, I am so saddened to hear that Pliny had ALS and that he has passed on to the great unknown. The thing I dislike the most about achieving my 80th birthday is the specter of loosing dear friends my age and older. It has always been so comforting knowing that the two of you were doing such important and influential work.
I moved to Austin in 1976 to volunteer at Max’s Pot and Pliny and Daria were an inspiration and my extended family. We made bricks out of caliche soil, caravanned to Vancouver to the UN Habitat conference (where I baby sat the boys), and brain stormed on how to grow the reputation of Max’s Pot.
What an extraordinary, visionary, and important body of work came out of Max’s Pot. I send love to you and the children and will privately celebrate Pliny’s life! Lynn Raskin

Sending love from our family to yours... Gail, Adam Fisk, Ariel, Carson, Noah and others.

//

Well, now, Pliny. You headed out into the bardo a week ago. And so we’re mourning while celebrating a life lived to the hilt: no opportunity missed to thumb one's nose at the systems of extractive foolishness, and to declare, with full clarity, hilarity and resolve, that cleverer ways are possible. Surely every living moment presents a window of opportunity for integration, layering, synergistic alignment?

Thanks for insisting I read Margulis and Alexander and Prigonine, for teaching me how to stick weld, for biking in the cool of the morning through deep East Austin. Thank you for arguing with me and making me feel crazy and then finding wilder resolutions than we knew were possible. You weren't ever the kind of mentor who checked in on my life or career. Instead, we became friends in the work. Thank you for calling me at random, over the years and then decades, with enthusiastic schemes for transforming industry and turning society inside out with basic common sense. What could be more dangerous?

In recent weeks, David and I spoke of you so often. You’re one of Spherical’s beloved transcalar elders. We’ve had so much to show you. We think you'd like it.

Obviously, many of us will be writing your legacy into the annals of practice: of green building and landscape architecture, of circular economics and industrial ecologies.

But some of us camped out for a time under the sun to learn from you and Gail. Some like me stayed on for a year or more, part of a secret cohort of nerds and fabricators and practical dreamers. For fifty years we showed up for this shared wild experiment. It’s on us to carry it forth.

Thank you for teaching me never to settle. Aren’t we here after all to maximize potential? Thank you for dreaming madly, and always saving enough energy for the dancing to come.

x Dawn
August 4, 2026

I recall watching and listening to Pliny present in the mid-1990s at a seminar at UMass. Everything he said that day rang true to me, made a ton of sense, and I have carried his thoughts with me as I navigated from job to job, doing what I could to address climate change. His work and the work of everyone at CMPBS was and is highly valued. Pliny will be missed, but I will do whatever I can to get the important messages out that Pliny left with me back in the 1990s.

My visits to MaxPot in 1978, 1982 and 1985 were an exciting part of my work in my late teens and twenties.

"The arc of the universe is long, but it been towards justice..." and efficiency.

May Pliny's memory be a blessing to his family and to us all..

I had certainly heard of CMPBS for years, but I hadn't heard Pliny in person until last summer, up in Bainbridge Island. And so just earlier this year, when in Austin, made time for a visit. I was honored that Pliny himself, and then Gail, took the time to share the vision of the center, and its history, with characteristic wit and piercing insight. A visit and memory I will never forget.

Working with Pliny and at Max’s Pot was a formative experience for me, both personally and professionally. I was just telling a young architect in my office about the start of my career and my experience at Max’s Pot.

One of my favorite memories of Pliny was after I moved to Seattle. He was in town and called me up. He wanted me to go kayaking with him at Salt Spring Island. The next morning. I think what he really wanted was someone to drive him up there but I wouldn’t think of saying no. I took the day off work and we had a great time. It was spontaneous and chaotic and wonderful and very Pliny.

He was a tremendous inspiration to me and a great man. I’m sorry I missed the opportunity to celebrate 50 years last year. I would have loved to see him again. My condolences to you all, and I wish you the best.

I can't remember when I first met Pliny. Probably it was in the 1970's when I was heavily involved with various appropriate technology projects. My most vivid memory of Pliny is from the load-bearing straw bale workshop I organized in 1989 in Oracle, AZ. Pliny attended. So did another old straw baler friend who died in 2024: Matts Myhrman.
At the end of the workshop, we all agreed that we'd successfully built a load-bearing straw bale small utility building, proving that it was straightforward to build structurally sound load-bearing bale buildings. Pliny's ideas and efforts during the workshop were key to the workshop's success. I'll always remember how happy he was, working with everyone, getting his hands dirty moving bales, attaching mesh, plastering. Pliny will be missed by many. Goodbye, Pliny.

Wherever you are, Pliny, here's a little something that'll bring a smile. I figure I’ll play a little tune from way back when you were just a boy, down in Texas — same one my granny’d sing to me whenever my spirits got low."

"Happy trails to you until we meet again
Happy trails to you keep smilin′ until then
Who cares about the clouds, if we're together
Just sing a song and bring the sunny weather

Happy trails to you ′til we meet again

Some trails are happy ones
Others are blue
It's the way you ride that trail that counts
Here's a happy one for you

Happy trails to you until we meet again
Happy trails to you keep smilin′ until then
Who cares about the clouds if we′re together
Just sing a song and bring the sunny weather

Happy trails to you 'til we meet again
Happy trails to you ′til we meet again

Honored and grateful to have been a tiny part of commotion creation with this great human. I spent a summer at the Center building UT’s first Solar Decathlon entry. Sending love to his family, who he always held as his proudest accomplishment.